We must admit that we were surprised by this conclusion: our mates are educated,
intelligent, witty, and invariably good-looking. They live in cosmopolitan cities near
beautiful beaches in a wonderful climate and enjoy a strong economy. Echoes of “she’ll
be right mate” ensure that they weather the few rough knocks that come their way with
grace. So we turned to Blanchflower and Oswald’s data to try to understand whether
they had uncovered a hidden dark side to the Australian psyche.